Our primary use case for Cisco Umbrella is for content filtering and for different access lists. We have different lists for different departments of what they can access.
Network Engineer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Very easy to accomplish content filtering, we don't need to do a lot of customization for it
Pros and Cons
- "It makes it really easy to accomplish content filtering. We don't have to do a lot of customization. You just click the box for the content category and it's up to date."
- "I would like for them to continue building on IPS and IDS functionalities."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It makes it really easy to accomplish content filtering. We don't have to do a lot of customization. You just click the box for the content category and it's up to date.
This ability is very important to my organization because we're in the financial sector and security is at a premium.
What is most valuable?
Cisco Umbrella is pretty straightforward and simple to use. We recently did social media blocking and it was really easy for our marketing department to access it. It's pretty straightforward.
It helped free up IT staff for other projects. It saves us a lot of time by blocking potential breaches. It's very reliable.
Umbrella has definitely helped us improve our cybersecurity resilience by blocking malicious links and adware.
What needs improvement?
I would like for them to continue building on IPS and IDS functionalities.
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August 2025

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For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Cisco Umbrella for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's been very reliable. I haven't had any issues with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is easy. It's deployed through group policies.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We're a Cisco shop. We have a lot of their products.
What was our ROI?
We have seen ROI through its pop-up blocking.
What other advice do I have?
We hope that Cisco will help us consolidate tools more than it is now by incorporating more IPS and IDS functionality.
My advice to someone considering Cisco Umbrella would be to focus on how easy is to use the GUI and how easy it is to navigate. You pretty much just click a box and the content categories work.
I would rate Cisco Umbrella a ten out of ten.
If your needs vary by department, I would advise making different groups for different departments. It's easier to do it that way than to set it up and go back to tie it to different AV groups.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

Project Manager at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Helps me to protect my endpoints so that they won't go to a malicious site
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is its ability to detect if a URL has malware or is vulnerable."
- "I would like for their support to be faster."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case is for filtering and security reasons. We send our DNS queries to Umbrella. It will see if we go to a site that has malware or a virus and it will stop it. It detects if the URL has malware.
How has it helped my organization?
The multilayers of defense have improved my organization. We have a lot of defensive layers and DNS queries from Cisco is one of them.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is its ability to detect if a URL has malware or is vulnerable.
What needs improvement?
I would like for their support to be faster.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Cisco Umbrella for six to seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have never experienced a stability issue where the site went down.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Support doesn't always get back to me right away but they'll send me an email with the solution. It's not critical. I don't have an issue with it. I would rate their support an eight out of ten. I took two points off because it can take a day or two for them to get back to me.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. There is good documentation. I can deploy it within a day or two. There's a page that shows you the health of the agent. It makes me more comfortable knowing that my configuration is healthy.
I did the deployment myself.
What was our ROI?
We have definitely realized ROI through the protection Umbrella offers.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is decent. The price is user-based, per month.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Cisco Umbrella a nine out of ten. I also use it on a personal level. It helps me to protect my endpoints so that they won't go to a malicious site.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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August 2025

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Sr. IT Consultant at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Works perfectly and provides a secure and fast connection to our corporate network from anywhere
Pros and Cons
- "For me, it's important that I get a connection to my corporate network in a secure and fast way. This product just runs in the background and doesn't need any attention. For me, as a user, it's perfect."
- "Overall, I'm quite happy with Cisco products, but there could be one place where you can check what's going on. There could be one place where you get all the information about these products so that you don't need to look around. You get the status, information about what lately happened, and if there was anything on the machine in one single place."
What is our primary use case?
I'm doing business for customers. I'm building customer networks. We have Cisco Umbrella and Cisco Secure Endpoint, and the use case is that we connect to the company network from all over the place, and we need to do it in a secure way.
We are just a small company with about 300 employees. Everybody is using these products to securely connect to the corporate network. From there, we support our customers. It needs to be really secure so that no security problems spread from our network to the customers' network. This is something we absolutely need to avoid. That's why these products are really good for us.
How has it helped my organization?
For me, it's quite good for daily work. Mainly, I work from a home office, so I have it running all day. It's okay for me. There is not much noise about it. I don't need to pay a lot of attention to this. It's just running in the background, and that's what I need.
It enables mobile work from anywhere. If you are at home, at a customer, or traveling, it enables a secure way of accessing the corporate network.
As a user, everything is there for securing our infrastructure from end to end to detect and remediate threats. There's nothing else that I need.
It saves time for sure. It doesn't require much attention. Everybody can use it. The end-users don't need to have any special skills. It's just perfect. I don't have the metrics on time savings because it isn't easy to know how much time you would have spent if you had an unstable product or if you had to take care of all this.
What is most valuable?
For me, it's important that I get a connection to my corporate network in a secure and fast way. This product just runs in the background and doesn't need any attention. For me, as a user, it's perfect.
What needs improvement?
Overall, I'm quite happy with Cisco products, but there could be one place where you can check what's going on. There could be one place where you get all the information about these products so that you don't need to look around. You get the status, information about what lately happened, and if there was anything on the machine in one single place.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using Cisco Umbrella for about a year and a half, and we've been using Cisco Secure Endpoint for somewhat longer. It has been about three years.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't been in touch with them because it's just working.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used other products such as separate virus scanners. Using all the products from Cisco simplified things. You don't need to worry about whether it's compatible or whether you need to do something special on the antivirus side. It simplified things for me.
How was the initial setup?
I work for customers, and this was set up by our internal IT department.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise seriously looking into it because, for our users, it's just working perfectly.
I would rate it a 10 out of 10. There are no complaints.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
CEO / Owner / Network Specialist at NSCON Network Services & Consulting GmbH
Has good documentation and its general ability to detect and remediate threats is quite good
Pros and Cons
- "The documentation is good, and we have been able to resolve any issues ourselves."
- "It would be good to have more extensions to third-party products and a client for other device types."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for DNS security.
It is deployed on the Umbrella cloud dashboard.
How has it helped my organization?
Cisco Umbrella helped to improve security by detecting and prohibiting threats.
What is most valuable?
I like the API. I also like the way Cisco Umbrella uses DNS to block malicious sites before they are opened.
Its general ability to detect and remediate threats is quite good.
The documentation is good, and we have been able to resolve any issues ourselves.
What needs improvement?
It would be good to have more extensions to third-party products and a client for other device types.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been working with Cisco Umbrella for four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not had any issues with stability.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is fair, and the licensing cost is based on the number of users. We have seen a good ROI.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, on a scale from one to ten, with ten being the very best, I'd rate Cisco Umbrella at nine.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Network and security at Education Service Center - Region 11
I can create custom policies for bad domains that we want to block
Pros and Cons
- "When it comes to hybrid work it's pretty effective. We've got the agents. We can protect people inside our building and, when they're using their laptops out in the field, they're still protected. It's working well."
- "If we're trying to deploy it to a Mac through Meraki, it's impossible. The method of deployment for a Mac, and the features available in Meraki, are not compatible at all."
What is our primary use case?
We use it to protect our users from getting to any known bad domains.
How has it helped my organization?
It does what it's supposed to do, protecting us from getting to somewhere that we shouldn't.
The solution also helps us remediate threats more quickly. Examples are when an email campaign comes in with malicious links, or if they're on a website like Facebook which is full of junk that doesn't need to come through.
What is most valuable?
Domain blocking is among the most valuable features. It keeps people from accidentally clicking on something they shouldn't. Also, if I see an email that comes through, I can pick out bad domains that we want to block and make custom policies to block them.
In addition, when it comes to hybrid work it's pretty effective. We've got the agents. We can protect people inside our building and, when they're using their laptops out in the field, they're still protected. It's working well.
The single pane of glass management is also pretty helpful because we don't have to hunt for what we're trying to work on.
What needs improvement?
Getting to some of the reporting features is something that could be improved. When I am tracking someone that has done something, my first hint is usually an email, because I've got those scheduled to come in every so often. But then I've got to log in, dig into that user, find the time period, and then export it. There's a lot of waiting involved through all of those steps.
It would be helpful if there were an embedded link in the email so that when it says it blocked something in particular, I wouldn't have to click through five or six different things to get what was blocked in that email. With a link like that, I could just click from within the notification email and it would take me straight to that page.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Cisco Umbrella for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I haven't had any issues when using it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scaling it is pretty easy. Every time we need to put it on a machine, it's just part of the deployment process.
There are a lot of features that I haven't used. They've been doing a lot of work on it recently and I was talking to one of our Cisco reps who talked about some things we can do with it that we're not doing yet.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't had to use technical support.
How was the initial setup?
It's continuously deployed because, if we wipe out a computer, we've got to put the agent back on it. If we have to put it on a Windows machine, it's easy. If we're trying to deploy it to a Mac through Meraki, it's impossible. The method of deployment for a Mac, and the features available in Meraki, are not compatible at all. Getting it to the point where you could deploy a Cisco product with a Cisco product would be beneficial.
What other advice do I have?
Umbrella is pretty invisible to our employees. Most of them don't know we're using it. There isn't a lot of user training involved, as long as your security people can get in there and do what they need to do.
It's a great tool because you can effectively block a lot of things that can infect your machines. People don't realize they're getting something that's malicious.
Overall, it has been pretty helpful for what we're using it for.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
The end user has been much happier with their application performance
Pros and Cons
- "Application performance has greatly improved and there are less operational issues. Productivity has been going up because we have less operational issues. Also, we have happy customers."
- "Network connectivity was a bit of a challenge at the beginning, but we were able to get the right help from Cisco."
What is our primary use case?
We have a centralized security policy. For the end user traffic from the firewall to go out to the Internet, it traverses through the secure SD-WAN going back to the data center. It passes a lot of proxies, firewalls, and different security checks. Hence, there are some performance issues. Therefore, we asked Cisco to come in and see if there were any products that could improve this situation for the local Internet breakout, and this was the solution that they brought to the table.
We have a remote location that uses Viptela SD-WAN in conjunction with Umbrella.
How has it helped my organization?
It adds a lot of value to the environment. The end user has been much happier with their application performance after using it. I don't see any drawbacks with this solution.
Hybrid work is also kind of important. Some users may be working from home these days, especially after COVID, as they don't necessarily have to come back to the centralized location for security checks. They can have security going out local from their home environment as well.
The performance has been greatly improved, especially for some of the end users who kept creating tickets and complaining that it was really slow when everything had to go through the central tool for security checks. Now, everything is locally broken out. Also, security now has all the right filters and malware checks.
The malware piece protects the network from malicious attacks. We have had a lower case of security breaches. Therefore, that brings a lot of value to the table.
What is most valuable?
The content filtering piece is something that really ties back to what my customer is using because they do have some sites that they don't want end users to go to, in order for the security to be locally available, allowing the users to break out to the Internet. The content filtering is a key piece that our customers want to test and use. So, we tested, and it was successful.
The single-pane-of-glass management is very important. Management wants to look at a single frame, then expand it to get the information that they need, without relying on engineers to take it out. Sometimes, engineers need to go down multiple levels to get the information and package it, and then it is possibly not the information that they are looking for. So, it has to be done again.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for about six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We haven't encountered any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good. There aren't any limitations with its scalability. We can scale it out.
How are customer service and support?
We have had some tech cases. However, a lot of times we have our account engineers who help out. They are very savvy and knowledgeable. If something is unknown, they will reach out to internal Cisco for help. They are pretty good. I would give them 9 out of 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did previously use a different solution.
We wanted to do the local breakout, but our previous solution wasn't able to do it. We spent quite a bit of time testing the other solution, but it just didn't work. This is why we reached out to Cisco.
How was the initial setup?
We did some testing. Network connectivity was a bit of a challenge at the beginning, but we were able to get the right help from Cisco. The POC probably took a month or so
What was our ROI?
Application performance has greatly improved and there are less operational issues. Productivity has been going up because we have less operational issues. Also, we have happy customers.
What other advice do I have?
Usually when we have a good solution, we share it with our peers who can then bring it to their customer's attention, if they need to solve the same problem.
I would rate this solution anywhere between 8 and 9 out of 10 because it addresses the needs of my customer, but leaving room for improvement.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Vice President Information Security & Compliance at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Significantly reduces investment in hardware-based firewalls by diminishing refresh frequency
Pros and Cons
- "One of the most important features is the security posture check which Umbrella offers when a user accesses any website. That is one of the most unique features that it offers."
- "If a hardware platform were provided for Umbrella, that would definitely improve the market for it... Especially when we are addressing governmental customers, they hesitate to connect to the cloud. That is where we need a hardware platform so that the solution can be used on-premises as well."
What is our primary use case?
One of the main use cases of Cisco Umbrella kicked in during the COVID pandemic, as a SASE deployment—secure access, secure edge. Most of the users within a company started working from outside the company and that is when Umbrella became deployed a lot.
What is most valuable?
One of the most important features is the security posture check which Umbrella offers when a user accesses any website. That is one of the most unique features that it offers.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see hardware-based integrations. If a hardware platform were provided for Umbrella, that would definitely improve the market for it. The solution is pretty good, but if a hardware-based solution came through, it would meet all the compliance standards in my country.
Especially when we are addressing governmental customers, they hesitate to connect to the cloud. That is where we need a hardware platform so that the solution can be used on-premises as well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been deploying Cisco Umbrella for about five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's quite stable. I've gotten very positive feedback from the customers who have deployed it within their environment. The feedback has been amazing. It's up and running 99.9 percent of the time, since it's a cloud-based solution. We have had no problems related to bugs or any issues like that.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable. Although I'm not talking to the clients anymore, I'm sure that the organization I worked with is working with them to spread the solution to more users who were not covered in the initial deployment. There is an adoption roadmap for this product.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is included as part of the subscription. At any point in time, if you have any queries, there's a 24/7 TAC number available. You can just call and log a case.
I'm also very satisfied with the documentation provided for the solution.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The previous solution we used was Akamai, but Akamai was more costly compared to Umbrella, and the consumption model was not favorable. Cisco Umbrella cost at least 30 percent less compared to what Akamai offered.
How was the initial setup?
One of the key aspects of Umbrella is the deployment. It takes a matter of just 30 minutes to deploy it in any enterprise and, as soon as it is deployed, it starts to work, so it is seamless. The benefits are realized immediately.
The implementation strategy is pretty straightforward. On the customer's existing hardware you just have to make the entries that will enable the connection to Umbrella and it starts to run. It's a single-person deployment, a single network engineer. That is the beauty of it; you don't require a huge team to deploy it.
Umbrella doesn't require any maintenance. All the updates happen automatically. The configuration is a one-time process.
It can be deployed on the public cloud and private cloud. These are two of the selling factors, although public cloud is more common. It's a multi-location solution but can also be used by a single headquarters. On average, our deployments are for 2,000 endpoints.
What was our ROI?
If you look at the ROI, Umbrella significantly reduces investment in hardware-based firewalls. For example, typically, an enterprise has to refresh its firewalls every five years. By using Umbrella, they don't have to change their firewalls, rather the security posture is shifted to a cloud-based provider.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There are no hidden costs with Umbrella. Everything is included in the package.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Other than Akamai, there weren't many providers available in India.
What other advice do I have?
One important piece of advice would be to look at your existing framework and see which use cases Umbrella can address. That will make the adoption much easier.
Umbrella is the best product available as of now.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Network Manager at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
It is user-friendly and very easy to manage, but their support should be more efficient
Pros and Cons
- "It is user-friendly. It is easy to manage the solution."
- "Their support should be improved. It is necessary that the support is efficient. It is not really easy to get a resolution for an issue from Cisco support. They should be faster and more efficient."
What is our primary use case?
We are using it for user navigation. We have another solution for the server, and Umbrella is used for the people in the company for web access and security purposes. It helps to avoid security problems and authorize different types of access to the users for different web services.
How has it helped my organization?
I am a network administrator, and for me, it is the best solution because it is easy to manage. It is also effective for web access for the users.
With the old solution, we had a lot of restrictions because it was old technology and it was very important to provide different types of access. Umbrella is a cloud solution, and we can add access to new services or websites. It is a good product.
It is totally transparent for the users. When you have Cisco Umbrella on your computer, you cannot really see the product. It is very important for the users to not see the product.
It is very easy to manage, which is really important. We do not have time to manage this solution, and it is really important to have a good performance without any action or monitoring from my team. We work with Umbrella every day, but we don't need to make any changes on Umbrella because it is working.
It is easy to maintain network connectivity consistently across all workplaces, and it has been a good experience for our employees.
It provides resilience on all the sites. We have five sites, and all the sites have Umbrella.
What is most valuable?
It is user-friendly. It is easy to manage the solution.
What needs improvement?
Their support should be improved. It is necessary that the support is efficient. It is not really easy to get a resolution for an issue from Cisco support. They should be faster and more efficient.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about three to four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. I do not have a problem with this. We only had one bug three months ago, and we had a problem with the support, but before that, it has been a good experience.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. We deployed it on different sites of the company. We use it for a lot of different services.
We have about 600 users, but we have 1,000 licenses. We might increase its usage.
How are customer service and support?
Cisco Umbrella's support is not really efficient. When we have a problem, it is difficult to have good support. It is not really easy to resolve a problem with Cisco support. Three months ago, we had a problem with it, and the support was not very efficient. I would rate them a six out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had a French solution. It was an old solution, and it was not sufficient for the company. Cisco Umbrella has been the best for our company.
How was the initial setup?
It is not really easy, but because we have experts with us, it was not complex for us. We did this in one month because it was really important to give good services to the users.
What was our ROI?
We have seen an ROI, but it is hard to provide metrics.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We did a good negotiation, and at the moment, its price is fine.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I didn't look at other options. I only tested Cisco Umbrella.
What other advice do I have?
It has probably helped us to remediate threats more quickly. It is a good solution for user devices but probably not for servers.
I would rate it a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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